It's a Tenipuri Life
by shy-hinata
Summary: Oishi has a really bad day and wishes he was never born. In the spirit of 'It's a Wonderful Life', his guardian angel shows him what life would be like without him.


This story came about when I was discussing 'It's a Wonderful Life' with someone, and we commented that Oishi most resembled the character of George Bailey. And since I think Oishi is SO underappreciated, I thought I'd write something along the lines of that movie to show just how important Oishi is grin. Oh, and before you flame me, or get angry about how some characters are OOC, please watch the movie so you can see where I grabbed all the little stories from. Enjoy!

* * *

Title: It's a Tenipuri Life  
Author: shy-hinata  
Rating: G  
Summary: Oishi wishes that he never existed...

* * *

"What's that, Mamushi? What do you want?!""Fssshhhh" 

Oishi Syuichiroh sighed as the distinctive voices of two second-year regulars floated above the crowd in the clubroom. He approached Momoshiro and Kaidoh, and though nothing had started just yet, Oishi knew that if he didn't diffuse the situation now, things would get worse.

"Momo. Kaidoh. Take it easy...there's no need to fight, okay?" Oishi stepped between the two with a gentle smile on his face. He was rewarded with two very perplexed looks.

"Uhh...Oishi-sempai ...Mamushi was just giving me a Christmas card. You know, you shouldn't just assume that we're so immature that we can't have a civil conversation once in a while." Momoshiro looked offended, and even a little hurt. "Thanks a lot, sempai", he muttered under his breath. Oishi's shoulders dropped. For his part, Kaidoh simply handed Oishi a card with a curt nod. Kaidoh would never say anything against a sempai, but Oishi could tell that he was equally offended.

"...Momo...Kaidoh...I...I'm really sorry...I didn't mean it that way..." Oishi's eyes were wide with guilt and concern.

"Yeah...whatever...let's just get practice started." came Momo's muttered reply as he headed for the clubroom door.

Oishi sighed again, and closed his eyes for a moment. Afternoon practice was starting off on a bad note. Definitely not what he wanted so close to the holidays.

o o o o o o o o

Oishi wiped his towel across his face before hanging it around his neck. He was having a short break before starting the next set of drills. He closed his eyes and sighed as he re-played the incident with Momo and Kaidoh in his head. He opened his eyes when he sensed someone walk up to him.

"Ahh...Inui...what's up?"

To Oishi's great dismay, Inui held up a glass of oddly multicoloured juice.

"You seem a bit stressed, Oishi. So, I thought you might want some of my brand new Special De-stressing Inui Juice Deluxe."

It took all of Oishi's willpower not to gape at the mixture before him. He was about to politely refuse the drink, but something about Inui's hopeful look made him change his mind. He had already offended two of his friends today, and he didn't want to do the same to Inui. Against his better judgement, Oishi thanked the data man and took the glass in hand. Oishi tried to ignore Inui's intense stare as he took a sip.

Before he could control his reaction, Oishi turned his head and spat the vile juice out...right into a racquet-wielding Kawamura's face.

"OISHI!!!!! YOU'VE INSULTED MY HONOUR!!! "

Kawamura started swing his racquet wildly at Oishi before the now panicky vice-captain could pluck the racquet from the powerhouse's hands. It took help from both Fuji and Eiji to finally save their beleaguered friend. Once Kawamura was finally calmed down, Oishi noticed Inui's expression.

"Inui..." Oishi wanted to apologize but Inui cut him off. Oishi wasn't sure, but behind the glare of the glasses, it seemed like Inui was hurt and a bit crestfallen.

"You know, if you didn't want to drink it, you could've just refused the juice..." Inui sighed as he took the glass back from Oishi before turning around and walking away.

Oishi watched Inui's retreating back with increasing guilt. Things went completely contrary to what he had wanted. And on top of it, he had insulted Kawamura too. Today was not going well at all.

o o o o o o o o o

Much to Oishi's relief, the rest of practice went without any further incidents. In the clubroom, he slumped onto a bench and leaned back against the wall. His head was pounding but he could finally retreat home to his room and to his fish. Before he knew it, his bouncy doubles partner had flopped down next to him.

"O-i-shi!!! Let's go out for ice cream!!" Eiji tugged on Oishi's sleeve. Oishi smiled gently at his friend, but knew that he would be pretty lousy company in his current mood.

"Eiji...not today, okay? How about another time? I mean, we've both got lots of homework to do before the holidays, right?"

Eiji crossed his arms and pouted a little. "Fine. Be a party pooper. Sometimes you're just no fun at all..." Eiji grabbed his things and marched out of the clubroom. Fuji looked at Oishi slumped on the bench before following Eiji out. Before stepping out the door, the resident tensai turned towards the vice-captain.

"I think the invitation was more for you than for him..."

Oishi sat alone in the clubroom, staring at the door. It was the end of the day, and he had managed to make just about all his friends angry with him. In a daze, he grabbed his things and locked up the clubroom.

o o o o o o o o

Oishi started walking to nowhere in particular. By the time he shook himself out of his daze, he didn't recognize where he had ended up. He sat himself down against a tree, and looked out at the river in front of him. Oishi couldn't remember the last time he had felt so terrible. The feeling of losing a match was nothing compared to this.

Oishi let out a heavy sigh and leaned his head against the rough trunk of the tree. He could feel the bark scraping the back of his head as he slumped even lower.

"My friends don't need me...they're probably better off without me...I wish I was never born..." Oishi murmured quietly to himself

"Oh? Are you so sure about that?"

Oishi's head snapped up when the heard the voice of...Ryuzaki-sensei? He quickly stood up and bowed out of respect.

"Ryuzaki-sensei!!"

'Ryuzaki-sensei' just chuckled. "Actually, I'm not Ryuzaki-sensei at all. I just took the form of someone who you respect and will listen to. I'm actually your guardian angel, and I couldn't help but overhear your little wish there. Are you really sure about that?"

Guilt and anguish played across Oishi's face. "Well, you must've seen what happened today. I'm just...well, it's not like the team needs me for anything. And if I wasn't around, then I wouldn't have hurt everyone like that."

Ryuzaki raised her eyebrow a little. She nodded and snapped her fingers. "Alright. It's done. You never existed."

Oishi looked puzzled. "What do you mean, sensei? Aren't I right here?"

Ryuzaki smiled at Oishi. "I'm going to take you on a tour of what the world is like without you in it. No one around here will know who you are, and they won't be able to see me. Come on...let's go pay everyone a visit."

o o o o o o o o

Oishi looked around him as they walked around the city. Nothing looked different at all. People went around their business, happily shopping for the holidays. He even thought he has spotted Tachibana An and her brother walking around. He resisted the urge to greet them when he remembered Ryuzaki's warning that no one would know him. They came to a stop in front of a building that Oishi felt that he should know. Finally, it hit him. They were in front of what should have been Kawamura's Sushi Restaurant. Instead, there stood a convenience store filled with plastic food and blinking neon.

"Sensei! What happened to the restaurant!"

"Well, without you around to encourage Kawamura and help to control his 'burning' tendencies, he never stayed with the tennis team. Unfortunately, without tennis as an outlet, Kawamura's other side manifested itself whenever he handled fish...which is disastrous in a sushi house. So, after all the damages that he caused, his family couldn't afford to keep their shop and were forced to sell."

Oishi was too shocked to speak and didn't protest as Ryuzaki started guiding him to another location.

o o o o o o o o

"Juvenille Detention Hall? What are we doing here, sensei?" Oishi was confused as he looked around.

"Just visiting some people." Ryuzaki ushered Oishi down a hallway. Sitting inside some sparse rooms were...

"Momo?! Kaidoh?!....and Inui?!" Oishi couldn't believe it. How could it be that his friends were in such a place as this?! Oishi watched in disbelief as his friends were led single file out of their rooms and out to a park to perform community service.

"Well, without your tireless efforts to keep them from fighting, Kaidoh and Momoshiro never learned how to act like civil human beings to each other, and never became team-mates and friends. They never learned to look past the small little insults. As for Inui, the juice that you spat out was so horrible because he accidentally knocked in an entire bottle of Aspirin. Because you weren't there to make Inui try a new recipe, he gave it to an unsuspecting club member with an allergy to Aspirin. That club member suffered a severe reaction and almost died. Inui was accused of poisoning people, and wound up here."

Oishi couldn't stand looking at the dull, flat faces that his friends wore. He wanted to run up to them and shake them just to get some sort of reaction from them. Ryuzaki put her arm out to stop him.

"Don't. Remember, no one knows you here. It would just cause more trouble."

Oishi nodded numbly and gave his teammates one last look before walking away.

o o o o o o o o

"I know this place!" Oishi said with a smile. "It's Seishun Gakuen!"

Finally, some place that he was familiar with. Everything seemed normal enough. They walked past the photography club darkroom, and Oishi noticed Fuji busily working away. Oishi was relieved. Fuji always did like taking photos so it was no surprise to find him here. Then he noticed a sign that stated that Fuji was the head of the photo club and was puzzled.

"Sensei, doesn't Fuji play tennis? I mean, if he's head of the photo club, that means that he's not part of the tennis club at all!"

Oishi looked at some of the photos in the gallery that Fuji had taken. They were of people playing tennis, and all the different emotions they experienced during matches. More often than not, there were disappointed faces that made Oishi realize that Seigaku 6 tennis was hardly the powerhouse he was used to. Certainly, all the medals that he was used to seeing in the cases were no longer there. And it seemed that Fuji still had an interest in tennis...but wasn't playing himself?

Ryuzaki simply nodded her head warily. "Yes...Fuji is not part of the tennis club. It's not that he doesn't possess his tensai skills or still love it, but there was no one at Seigaku who could come anywhere close to challenging him, so he lost interest."

Oishi's eyes widened. "But...what about Echizen....and Tezuka?! Shouldn't they be around to provide Fuji with some interesting matches?"

Ryuzaki shook her head and sighed. She motioned to Oishi to look out the nearby window. There was Echizen with a cast on his left arm sitting against a tree, looking longingly at the tennis courts. Oishi gasped and couldn't prevent his jaw from dropping to the ground.

"You see, without you and Tezuka around, jealous sempai managed to get to Ryoma. Using his own racquet, they managed to break his arm and pretty much crush any dreams of turning pro that Ryoma ever had."

For a second Oishi couldn't speak, but he picked up on something that Ryuzaki had said.

"Sensei, you said that Tezuka wasn't around either. Now he's someone that I _know_ would've continued to play tennis even though I wasn't around. What happened?"

Again, Ryuzaki sighed. She snapped her fingers, and Oishi found himself in a quiet cemetery. She pointed to a gravestone and Oishi rushed to it. He couldn't believe what he saw.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu. Beloved Son"

Oishi blinked away tears while he touched the gravestone. His friend was only 8 when he died. How could that be?!

"Do you remember the vacation you took with your family to the seaside when you were 8?"

Oishi nodded numbly. It wasn't unusual for them to go to the seaside. He had always loved water, and could swim with the best of them even early on.

"Well," Ryuzaki continued, "Do you remember teaching a certain boy who looked like he was struggling how to swim? He wasn't wearing glasses at the time, so maybe you didn't know...but that was Tezuka. Without you there, Tezuka ended up drowning that summer."

Oishi was totally blown away. He stumbled backwards a bit, trying to take everything in. His heart was pounding and it felt like his stomach was going to jump out of his mouth. He felt dizzy, and sick. Finally, a single word fell from his lips.

"Eiji..."

His doubles partner, and one of his best friends, had yet to be accounted for. Oishi was almost afraid to find out what might've become of him, but was partly convinced that nothing could get the genki redhead down.

Oishi turned to Ryuzaki and asked where they could find Eiji. Oishi needed to see with his own eyes what happened to the other half of the Golden Pair. Ryuzaki gave Oishi a wry smile.

"If you know your partner so well, maybe you can figure out where he is."

Oishi's eyes widened as he racked his brain. _Okay...I saw the tennis courts and he wasn't there..._ He started off on a run towards the ice cream shop. He ignored the looks he was getting as he raced through the streets. He stared in the window looking for the trademark red hair. None. _Okay....pet store then..._, Oishi thought to himself as he took off again. Despite the cute kittens and bouncy puppies in the window, Eiji was nowhere to be found. Oishi ran to the container at the top of the hill, and even a playground where Eiji sometimes liked to go to, without any luck.

"Ryuzaki-sensei! Please tell me where Eiji is!" Oishi's voice was desperate, and Ryuzaki couldn't help but sigh.

"Where is the last place that you would expect Eiji to be on a nice day like this?"

Oishi blinked before murmuring two words. "The library..." Again, he ran through the streets and headed back to school.

o o o o o o o o

Oishi tried to calm himself down at the library doors. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and stepped inside. Methodically, he walked down each aisle and checked every table and desk. He was going to give up until he heard a sound that he would know anywhere. It was a quiet 'Nya', hidden in a sniff. He followed the sound to find someone he almost couldn't recognise sitting in at a corner table. Eiji's hair was cut short, there was no band-aid on his cheek, and his bright red hair had been dyed a dull brown. Oishi couldn't believe his eyes. Ryuzaki put a hand on Oishi's shoulder and spoke quietly.

"Yes, that is most definitely Kikumaru Eiji. Nowhere near the bouncy, happy person you know. Without you around to support him and let him be himself, the older sempai bullied him into not wanting to stand out, and into getting rid of his more 'childish' tendencies."

Oishi just shook his head and shrugged Ryuzaki's hand off his shoulder as he walked over to Eiji. He spoke quietly, aware that they were still in a library.

"Hey...you must be Kikumaru Eiji....I'm Oishi Syuichiroh..."

Eiji's eyes widened and Oishi thought he could see terror in Eiji's clear blue eyes, a reaction that he was hardly used to inciting in his doubles partner.

"Who are you? How do you know me? You're not going to beat me up again, are you? I'm supposed to be a senior now...I've been good...I'm not standing out...I'm not supposed to get beat up now..."

Oishi felt his stomach drop. How could people beat up such a friendly and happy person as Eiji? Tezuka would never allow it...oh...wait...Tezuka died as a child here. He put a gentle hand on Eiji's shoulder.

"It's such a nice day today...wouldn't it be nice to go out for ice cream, or something? Or maybe stopping by the pet store...they have a bunch of new kittens there..."

Eiji's face broke out into a smile as he stood up, and Oishi thought that some of the Eiji he knew was breaking through. And then Eiji's eyes went cold as he edged away from Oishi towards the library exit.

"No...you're just trying to trick me...I'm not supposed to like that kind of stuff...I'm not supposed to act like a kid...you're going to beat me up if I start doing stuff like that...just like all those other times...just...go away...leave me alone!!!"

Eiji dashed out of the library with his trademark speed and Oishi took off at full tilt to keep up with him. Everything was too much for him, and he wished that Eiji would recognise him and go back to his usual playful self. All logic flew out the window as Oishi chased after the redhead.

"Eiji!! Wait!! Don't you remember me?! I'm your doubles partner, Oishi!! You know, Golden Pair, right?! Eiji!!! Stop running!!!

"You're crazy!!! I've been picking up balls for the tennis club all this time, and I've never seen you, let alone played doubles with you! Leave me alone! Stop chasing me!! SENSEI!!! A crazy person is chasing me!!!"

Oishi took in Eiji's words as he saw teachers running towards him. Eiji basically said that he never made it as a regular. Oishi gaped at Eiji's retreating back before the teachers' warning shouts brought him back to his senses. Not wanting to be caught, Oishi ran out of the school.

o o o o o o o o

Oishi kept running while fighting back tears. This was terrible! How could it be that things had turned out so badly?! He ran and ran until he reached the same tree and river where it all began. He fell to his knees at the base of the tree and let his tears fall freely. His voice was quiet and pleading.

"Sensei....please...this is terrible...I liked things the way they were...."

Oishi leaned his forehead against the tree trunk as he wiped his eyes.

"...please..."

"O-i-shi!!! There you are!!!" Oishi's head snapped up to see Eiji, red hair, band-aid and all, running towards him. A short distance behind his doubles partner, he could see Fuji running towards him as well...wearing his Seigaku regular's uniform. Eiji jumped up and gave his partner a big hug.

"Eiji!!" Oishi was beyond happy.

"Where have you been?! We tried to phone your cell, and we even phoned our house, but your parents said you weren't home yet, which I thought was weird because you said you wanted to do your homework...Hey, Oishi? You okay? You were crying..." Eiji rambled quickly.

Oishi smiled at his partner. "Yeah...I'm fine...Hey Eiji, I'm sorry about being a big stick-in-the-mud."

Eiji shook his head. "No, no! Don't apologise. It's a good thing we didn't get ice cream! You'll see why soon...C'mon! Let's go to Taka-san's restaurant!!!"

Eiji grabbed a dazed Oishi along with him as they went with Fuji towards the restaurant.

o o o o o o o o

Oishi was so relieved to see that the familiar sushi restaurant was right were he expected it to be. He blinked away some tears as he could hear the cheers and laughter inside. He took off his shoes and let Eiji push him inside. There was a crowd in one part of the room, which parted as Eiji continued to guide Oishi towards the centre. Oishi was speechless as he stared. Finally, he found his voice.

"...Te...Tezuka!" A great big smile broke across Oishi's face as he let the fact that their stoic captain was actually there in front of him sink in. "You're actually here! And okay!"

Tezuka's eyebrow raised slightly, wondering what had gotten into Oishi, but he just nodded and even smiled a little.

"Ah. I'm back for the holidays. It's good to see you all." Tezuka looked around the room and nodded to all the regulars.

Oishi looked around the room at all the smiling faces around him. Everyone was together, and everyone was happy. He felt a tug on his sleeve and turned to face his doubles partner.

"Hey Oishi, I'm sorry that I got all childish on you. I heard from everyone what happened to you today, and you really didn't need me to add to that. I'll really try not to act all childish on you anymore, okay?!!" Eiji smiled brightly at Oishi, who could only shake his head.

"Eiji, don't change a single thing about yourself. I like the way you are." Oishi held his hand up for a high-five. Eiji laughed and smacked Oishi's outstretched hand.

"Yay! Golden Pair!"

o o o o o o o o

That night, Oishi lay in bed and stared up at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Sure, he might not be the star of the Seigaku team, and maybe he did mother and worry a bit too much, but he did usually have everyone's best interests at heart. And after seeing what might've been, he was pretty sure that he was never going to regret being himself.

THE END


End file.
